Never Tied Down (The Never Duet #2)(37)

Her tone was despondent and she was suddenly morose. “What happens in thirty weeks?”

“Never mind, Riot. It’s not important.”

“Of course it’s important. You brought it up, now explain it.”

“Really, big brother, it’s nothing.” She gave me the weakest smile I’d ever seen grace her face, but I could tell she really didn’t want to talk about it.

“Okay, well, I’m here if you ever need to talk. When do you have to be back to work?”

“I have a lot of vacation time saved up, so I’m not sure yet.”

“Kal and I are going to go down to the pier tomorrow before we head back to LA. Want to come with us?”

Finally, a genuine smile crossed her face when she said, “That sounds like fun.”

“I’m gonna head inside and make sure Ma isn’t embarrassing me.”

“I can guarantee Ma is embarrassing you,” she said with a laugh.

“Well, I’m heading in to do damage control then. You coming?”

“Nah, I’m gonna sit out here and stare at the fire for a while still.”

“Okay, sis.” I stood up and walked toward the door, but turned before I went in. “Halah?”

“Yeah?”

“I can tell you’re going through something, but I just want you to know that you can count on me. If you ever need anything….” I trailed off because I wasn’t sure how to put into words how much my little sister’s welfare meant to me. I wanted her to be happy, and if I could help in any way, I wanted her to let me.

“You’re a good big brother,” she said softly. “If I need anything, I’ll let you know.”

I nodded. There wasn’t much else to do. I couldn’t hold her down like I had when we were kids and force her to tell me by threatening to spit on her. We were adults. She had to deal with her own issues and I had to hope she’d let me in if there was something I could do to help. Being an adult really sucked sometimes. I gave her one last smile and then opened the door to head back into the house.

I found Ma and Kalli sitting at the kitchen table, a giant photo album open between them. Ma was pointing out pictures of me when I was younger, and I could visualize the picture by just her description.

“And this is when Riot won first place in his youth bowling tournament.” I groaned. I’d been nine years old, I was wearing tube socks, and I had braces. It was, quite nearly, the worst photo she could have showed her.

Kalli saw me walk in and her eyes turned to me. They were sparkling with amusement.

“You were a bowler?” She could hardly make it through the question without choking on laughter.

“I was nine. Bowling is cool when you’re nine.”

Smart as always, she didn’t say anything in response, just smiled wider and returned her gaze to the album.

“This is when he came in third for the county spelling bee.”

“I see you were still a fan of the tube socks during the spelling bee years.” The giddiness in Kalli’s voice was almost cute enough that I didn’t care she was making fun of me.

“Perhaps we should look at some photos of you when you were nine years old and see how fashion forward you were.”

Kalli didn’t raise her eyes from the photo album when she muttered, “My mom worked two jobs when I was nine and I let myself in the house after school with a key that hung around my neck. There are probably only a few pictures of me when I was nine.”

“Babe,” I said, mentally punching myself in the face for shoving my foot in my mouth.

“You must have been really brave to stay alone every day after school by yourself,” Ma said, coming to my rescue.

Kalli just shrugged. “I did get really good at cooking in the years between my dad leaving and my mom remarrying. I tried to make my mom dinner every night so she wouldn’t have to when she came home.”

“Well, I’m sure Riot could benefit from some cooking lessons. Getting him to cook anything when he was younger was like pulling teeth. I think he burned things on purpose so I’d stop asking.”

“No, Ma, I’m just that bad at it.” I was hoping my attempt at humor would make a smile appear on Kal’s face.

“I’d be happy to teach him a thing or two,” she finally said, her eyes meeting mine, a small, shy smile on her face. I wanted to walk to her, take her chin in my hand and apologize, then kiss her. But I knew she wouldn’t appreciate that with my mom right next to her. So I settled for mouthing, “Sorry,” at her, and let out a sigh of relief when she winked back at me.

An hour later we were back at the hotel. Kalli had been quiet on the ride there, and even though I wanted to know what was running through her mind, I settled for keeping my hand on her thigh and letting my thumb trail light circles there. I held her hand the entire way up to our room and she was still silent.

“Are you all right?” I finally asked as she walked to her side of the bed and flipped on her lamp. “You’ve been really quiet.”

A weak smile crossed her face as she shrugged off her jacket, laying it over the chair next to the bed. “Just thinking a lot.”

I sat down at the foot of the bed as she walked toward me. “Care to tell me what’s going on in there?” She stopped just in front of me and leaned down, pressing a small kiss against my lips. It was fast and sweet.